


can’t breathe without you (i wanna be held)

by darlingargents



Series: Ladies Bingo 2017/2018 [15]
Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Community: ladiesbingo, Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff, Full Moon, Headaches & Migraines, Hurt/Comfort, Magic, Slice of Life, Werewolf Artemis Crock, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-31
Updated: 2018-03-31
Packaged: 2019-04-16 04:22:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14156610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darlingargents/pseuds/darlingargents
Summary: It’s their job. Artemis gets why Zatanna isn't here with her.That doesn’t mean she doesn’t want to hold her girlfriend or lessen her pain. She’s only human — well, werewolf — after all.





	can’t breathe without you (i wanna be held)

**Author's Note:**

> For the Ladies Bingo square **Supernatural Happenings**. Short last-minute fill to finish out one more line before the challenge officially ends today. Title is an edited line from Wanna Be Missed by Hayley Kiyoko because oh my god, the new album. My tiny gay heart is alive.

Artemis has come to loath the moon.

Ironic, perhaps, considering her namesake, but that doesn’t lessen her rage. She’ll take irony over passivity.

It’s two days from the full moon now. Her skin itches all over and feels too tight and her senses are dialled up so much that she can’t focus on anything because all the information her brain is taking in blends together like a wall separating her from the world. The overload gives her a splitting headache and often requires lying in bed until the full moon finally rises and the main event begins.

Of course, it’s been a while since she’s actually had to sequester herself in her apartment and curl up in bed with earplugs and her favourite teddy bear, feeling like her skull is going to split from the pressure. The sheets feel rough as sandpaper, her clothes feel like ropes tightening around her every time she moves, and she can still hear just as well as she would on an ordinary day — which is an improvement over her usual full-moon ability to hear every single sound on the block.

The earplugs really do help.

Unfortunately, since Zatanna is on a mission with a few other League members and has been for the last two weeks, it’s the only help present, unless she wants to resort to wolfsbane pills. Which help, sure, if she takes them every two hours until the full moon, but make her violently ill the moment they wear off.

Usually Zatanna just casts a few spells to ease off the pain and waits out the worst of it with her. The actual transformation is always bad, but Zatanna’s help for the days before makes recovery faster.

As is, Artemis thinks she’ll be lucky if the whole hellish process is over in a week. It’s a bad one, this time, made worse by her girlfriend’s absence.

A wave of pain in her head recedes slightly, and Artemis, her thoughts clearer, reaches for her phone, wincing at the feeling of the sheet on her arm and the coldness of the phone screen. She pulls it under the covers with her and winces again when she turns it on, the brightness sending another spike of pain through her skull. She unlocks it and quickly types out another text to Zatanna.

_I understand if you can’t come back immediately but please do if you can. It’s a bad week. Miss you <3_

It’s probably selfish, Artemis thinks as she drops the phone into the sheets and burrows her face into the pillow — made of smooth enough fabric that it doesn’t hurt, unlike the rest of her bedsheets — to sooth her eyes with darkness. She knows they’re deep into a mission and probably won’t be back in communication for another week, and not back home for a week after that — Batman had confirmed their safety, but not much else. Artemis has done the same thing. It’s their job. She gets it.

That doesn’t mean she doesn’t want to hold her girlfriend or lessen her pain. She’s only human — well, werewolf — after all.

Her phone buzzes. Surprised, Artemis digs through the sheets until her fingers close around it and pulls it up to her face, reading the text on the screen. It goes in and out of focus a little, and her headache is getting worse, so that must be why she thinks it says—

_I’ll be home in ten minutes._

It’s too good to be true, so it’s probably not. Artemis sighs and drops the phone again, pressing her face back into the pillow.

She drifts in and out of awareness for the next while, until she feels a weight setting down on her bed. Grumbling, she flips over and pulls the covers off her head, and stops, staring.

Zatanna is sitting there, still in costume, a bloody cut on her cheek and a dusting of dirt and grime all over her body.

“I thought you were away,” Artemis manages to say after a moment.

“Took a break.” Zatanna takes Artemis’s hand, gently looping their fingers together. “Couldn’t leave my girlfriend in pain, could I? _Esae smotpmys_.”

The pain in Artemis’s head slowly dissolves as the world loses its excessive sharpness and clarity. She sits up, rubbing at the centre of her forehead. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” Zatanna stands and runs her hands down the front of her uniform jacket. Dirt rains down on the bedroom floor, and Artemis winces as it presumably embeds itself in her rug. “I’m going to have a shower. Then Netflix? Okay?”

“Yeah.” Artemis watches her leave, and smiles to herself, flopping back down on the bed. It doesn’t hurt anymore.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [ten minutes (pain tolerance remix)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15535044) by [summerdayghost](https://archiveofourown.org/users/summerdayghost/pseuds/summerdayghost)




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